Category: Focus — Single Person

  • SADDAM’S UNDERWEAR | Meditations – Chapter Two

    Readers are warned that this essay is concerned about men’s under shorts and briefs. It would be a great disappointment to this old essay writer to have my readers expecting a display rivaling a Victoria’s Secret catalogue. This is a work of utmost modesty. It could be delivered profitably by some Protestant preachers who appear…

  • FRITZ, JAEGER, MENCKEN AND HERSH

    If someone were to ask me who ranks first among all American journalists and authors since we gained our independence 229 years ago, my answer would be prompt and unequivocal. Clearly, it is Henry Louis Mencken who edited the Baltimore Sunpapers as well as “The Smart Set” and “The American Mercury” magazines. For 60 years,…

  • WE’LL KEEP A WELCOME

    A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF JEAN MC FARLAND LIVERMORE AND A COMMEMORATION OF MORE THAN 50 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH HARRY A. LIVERMORE “We’ll Keep a Welcome” is a Welsh song that personifies Jean McFarland Livermore’s life and to some extent, Grinnell College in Iowa which she attended. “We’ll Keep a Welcome” goes back…

  • TONY NAVE’S FATHER

    This essay about the death of Tony Nave’s father is dedicated to George Bush and to George Nethercutt, a Representative from Washington State who made it all possible. Nearly eight months ago, there was printed in several newspapers and on the Internet, a photograph taken by Steve Perez of the Detroit News Photo Department. It…

  • STUD DUCKERY

    This little story has to do with Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and other world figures and a small, young orange and white tabby cat who is now walking on my writing paper and is trying to catch my pen. It also has much to do with one of my soldier friends from Indiana.…

  • HALLEY’S COMET

    It seems to this ancient essayist that it is his duty occasionally to present his readers with a new word – a neologism, if you will. There are politicians and preachers and television commentators who use the term “revert back” to refer to some event or condition that has happened before and is happening again.…

  • THE MCGREEVEY AFFAIR

    On Friday, Miss Chicka called my attention to an Internet report that James E. McGreevey, the Governor of New Jersey, had resigned and had announced he was a “gay American.” My retirement took place a long time ago, so what is being said around water coolers is now largely unknown to me. However, using my…

  • CRAIG JORDAN – A CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL

    Ordinarily, it is my wont to deal with financial matters promptly. This accounts for calling contractors before their bill for work at the Carr-Chicka residence has often been composed. And so my head is shaking over my failure to write an essay about Craig Jordan, a Lab Technician who works for the Summit Medical Group…

  • A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT

    In his 93rd year, former U. S. President Ronald Reagan, died on June 5, 2004. His death came at an inopportune moment, as the Allies from World War II were planning to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6th. Although Reagan had absolutely no involvement in the landings, his…

  • A LAMENT FOR SHAMROCK’S DEATH

    When an Irish person suffers a grievous loss, the response will most often come in the form of a lament. The dictionary says a lament may involve mourning aloud or a wail. It expresses sorrow and deep regret. The lament may take the form of a poem or of a song or of a sermon.…